I just purchased an HP G6Z laptop that was assembled in China. The
description reads "Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit." My only complaint to
date is when I loaded an instructional CD, I was unable to open it because I got
the following error message, "Error executing file. Setup.exe the requested
operation requires elevation." When I searched your website, all indicators
suggest that I have a Windows Vista program. All my paperwork, however,
indicates that it's genuine Windows 7. Is it possible? I've just started
researching this and have not yet contacted HP.

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In this excerpt from
Answercast #17, I look at an elevation error that is common in both Windows
7 and Vista machines, and point in the direction of a cure.

•

Is elevation just in Vista?

No, you've got Windows 7. The program giving the error is not specific to
Vista or Windows 7.

Your operating system, I'm sure is, Windows 7. If you look at your computer
properties, it will fire up right there and tell you what version of the
operating system you're running.

Elevation error

The elevation is just an error message and that's all it really is. The fact
that my articles only referenced to Windows Vista means that those articles
were probably written when Vista was the only operating system around requiring
elevation. The concept still applies: you probably need to run the setup
program as administrator. Or run it from a command prompt that you started as
administrator.

Elevate to Administrator

I realize that many people probably have your account setup to be
administrator, but in reality, the security model of both Vista and Windows 7
restrict your account by default from truly being the full administrator.

It's a security thing. It prevents random software from doing administrative
level things without your knowledge. In other words, it protects you from
various forms of malware.

So what you need to do is run the setup program (or a command prompt) that
would start the setup program as administrator. At that point, you won't get the
elevation; that's the elevation that it's talking about.

It's saying you need to run this with permissions elevated to the next
level: the next level being administrator.

Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.